Chang'an County Government.
Today, before the end of work time, Li Nuo had judged all the cases.
Adjudicating cases had been his long-standing expertise, and as he gradually became more familiar with the "Daxia Law," his speed in hearing cases also increased, allowing him to finish his tasks ahead of time.
Today's gains were good; although it was still a mix of trivial household and neighborhood disputes, the Law Code surprisingly added two days to his life. Waking up in the morning, he had twenty-four days left to live, but after judging the last case in the afternoon, that number became twenty-six.
All in all, he gained a net of one day.
Stepping out of the courthouse, Li Nuo said to the Chang'an County Magistrate, "For tomorrow's cases, I'll have to trouble Lord Pei."
Pei Zhe's face showed a trace of difficulty, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Li Nuo noticed that he seemed to have something to say and asked, "What is it?"
The Chang'an County Magistrate explained, "Your Excellency may not be aware, but tomorrow is a day of rest and bathing, and everyone from the government office, be they constables or clerks, will be resting and washing at home..."
He added, "As for taking the day off, it's not really an issue for me, but I'm afraid the subordinates might have opinions. After all, they've been toiling hard for ten days and are likely quite tired..."
Li Nuo had read through the "Daxia Law" over the past few days, which included regulations on government officials' holidays. Civil servants in Daxia worked ten days to earn one day off.
It might seem more burdensome than the five-day workweek with two days off of later times, but in reality, Daxia's officials lived much more comfortably. They had a day off for equinoxes and solstices, and for significant festivals like Qingming, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and Double Ninth, the holiday lasted for at least three days without any adjustments.
Daxia emphasized filial piety; it allowed days off for an official's parents' birthdays or death anniversaries, and such requests would certainly be granted.
If the superior didn't approve, a single impeachment petition would be enough for the Imperial Censors' criticisms to drown him.
How could one expect a person who was not filial to his parents to be loyal to the country?
By this accounting, out of the year's more than three hundred days, one could roughly take off more than one hundred and fifty days.
Li Nuo glanced at the surrounding government officials, who indeed looked rather deflated. Having slogged through ten days only to be confronted with the possibility of working on their one day off, what difference would that make them from the foolish leaders of later times?
But wouldn't he be wasting his day for nothing if he did not do something?
After thinking for a moment, Li Nuo said, "Well then, could Lord Pei please help me select ten individuals who are willing to stay and work at the government office tomorrow..."
Before he could finish, quite a few officials quietly stepped back.
Having eagerly awaited their day off, they had already planned to enjoy themselves. Who would want to work at the government office?
Li Nuo continued, "For these ten people, I will grant them a month's salary as compensation."
The group of officials suddenly looked up.
What?
Work for one day and receive an extra month's salary?
Forget about taking a bath then!
Fearing that they might miss out, the quick responders already rushed out to the Chang'an County Magistrate, saying, "My Lord, I am not tired, I am willing to stay and work at the government office tomorrow!"
"Me me me, I'm not tired either!"
"And me!"
"I will stay as well!"
In the blink of an eye, the number of volunteers surpassed ten. Those who stepped up later, seeing the trend turning unfavorable, immediately said, "My Lord, choose me, I'll do it for half a month's salary!"
The others cursed this individual inwardly but were forced to reduce their asking price as well, one after another.
"We'll do it for half a month's pay too..."
"Ten days, just ten days of salary is enough for me."
Pei Zhe completely understood these eager individuals - working for one day to receive a month's pay was a deal anyone would take. As for him, his wife managed his salary, and if he could save some private money, next time he could take silver to Fengqi Building to help those unfortunate women...
With a gambling father, an ailing mother, an unmarried younger brother, and the pitiful woman, as a paternal figure in government service, who else would help them if not him?
Thinking of this, he looked at Li Nuo and smiled, "Your Excellency has no official rank and working alone on the cases in the county government could attract gossip. How about this, tomorrow let my wife return to her parental home, and I will stay here to assist you..."
Li Nuo feeling uneasy said, "That doesn't seem appropriate, how can I delay Lord Pei's family matters?"
Pei Zhe waved his hand and said, "The people's matters are the most important. As a government official, I have yet to learn many things from you..."
Not long after, Li Nuo left the Chang'an County Government.
Government Officials and constables might seem imposing, but in fact, their salary is not high, only two taels per month, and for ten people, it's only twenty taels, Li Nuo didn't know exactly how much money his family had, but he believed that twenty taels could still be afforded.
Returning to the Li Mansion, Song Mu'er was already waiting for him in his courtyard.
There was only her and a maid from the Song Residence in the small courtyard, Song Jiaren was not seen, Li Nuo was worried that she would want him to play shuttlecock with her or comb her hair, the image of the female assassin and Assistant Minister Zheng's concubine had faded, now, aside from being good-looking, he could say he had no special skills.
The thing Li Nuo was worried about didn't occur, Song Mu'er came over with a small booklet and said delicately, "Brother Li Nuo, I have a problem I can't solve, could you please explain it to me?"
Hearing it was just a problem to explain, Li Nuo breathed a sigh of relief.
Back in the day, he had also achieved a perfect score in his college entrance mathematics exam, surely he couldn't be stumped by elementary school math?
Taking the small booklet Song Mu'er handed over, Li Nuo glanced at it and was slightly taken aback.
It wasn't that he couldn't solve the problem, Li Nuo had been reading books in his free time these past days, mostly skimming rather than studying in depth, aiming to understand this world as quickly as possible.
With regard to Daxia's level of mathematics, Li Nuo had a rough idea, modern mathematics had not yet sprouted here, Daxia's mathematics was all about solving practical problems, such as measuring areas and volumes, calculating grain prices, taxation, and so on...
Song Mu'er's problem was about calculating the price of grain.
"Owning nine dou of hemp, seven dou of wheat, three dou of beans, two dou of rice, and five dou of millet, costing a total of one hundred and forty silver, seven dou of hemp, six dou of wheat, four dou of beans, five dou of rice, and three dou of millet, costing a total of one hundred and twenty-eight silver;... one dou of hemp, three dou of wheat, two dou of beans, eight dou of rice, and five dou of millet, costing a total of ninety-five silver. What is the price per dou?"
By type, this problem was similar to the chickens and rabbits in the same cage kind of problems.
Only, the chickens and rabbits problem had two unknowns, while this one had five.
For Li Nuo, solving a system of five linear equations was not difficult, whether using elimination or matrix methods.
The difficult part was how to explain it to Song Mu'er.
After all, she was only six years old, and even in later times, this would be a high school math topic, and furthermore, high school math usually wouldn't test something this hard.
Song Mu'er didn't even understand the concept of an equation system, explaining it to her was not going to be easy for Li Nuo.
First, he found a piece of scratch paper, listed out the matrix of the problem, swiftly calculated the answer using linear algebra, then converted the problem into Daxia's arithmetic form on another piece of paper.
Daxia's numerals also had their convenient notation, and addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division all had corresponding symbols.
Song Mu'er could understand a standalone arithmetic operation.
But she didn't understand why two operations could be added together.
Li Nuo had no choice but to start from the very basics, step by step explaining it to her; fortunately, Song Mu'er was intelligent, and after Li Nuo gave a few examples, she slowly started to understand the operation between sets of equations.
The next step was much simpler.
Solving a system of five linear equations was just a process of adding and subtracting to eliminate unknowns; Li Nuo had already calculated the answer, he just needed to tell Song Mu'er how to do it, allowing her to compute step by step on her own. Although it took longer, in the end, she was able to work out the answer by herself.
Li Nuo watched her and asked, "Do you understand now?"
Song Mu'er discovered with surprise that the problem which she had just found so very difficult, she had managed to solve by herself.
She pouted and muttered, "I thought so, you explain things better than the teacher, the teacher would be unhappy if he heard this..."
While Song Mu'er looked relaxed, Li Nuo was not.
In order to help her understand, he started with simple examples, step by step, gradually moving forward, almost breaking and grinding all knowledge points, bit by bit feeding it into her mouth. If she had not understood, Li Nuo would have been at a loss.
Thankfully, Mumu didn't let her down, Li Nuo patted her head and said, "You shouldn't speak of the teacher like that..."
"Brother Li Nuo!"
Before Li Nuo could finish, a familiar voice came from not far away.
He turned his head to look, and saw Song Ning'er and Song Jiaren come in together from outside.
Song Ning'er ran over, smiling and greeting him.
Li Nuo was a bit surprised. When had he and Song Ning'er become so familiar?
Song Mu'er ran halfway, then suddenly stopped in her tracks, her gaze fixed on the person beside Li Nuo.
Song Ning'er glanced at her and proudly tilted up her chin.
Moments later.
Li Nuo looked at Song Mu'er turning away, pouting and ignoring him and then at the triumphant Song Ning'er, and covered his face somewhat helplessly.
Who could have expected that Song Ning'er would impersonate Song Mu'er to ask him the question?
The two sisters looked exactly alike, wore the same clothes, had the same hairstyles, the same jewelry, and even the scent of the sachets they carried was the same. He really couldn't tell them apart, couldn't tell them apart at all!